WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) RAD CON Team — 25 highly trained radiological control workers — is preparing contaminated facilities and equipment for demolition in 2017 and placing canisters of high-level waste (HLW) into safe, interim storage until they can be disposed in an approved facility.

   Watch a video of the team at work here.

   The workers have placed 145 HLW canisters into 29 vertical storage casks and moved them to the storage pad. Relocation of the remaining 133 canisters is scheduled to be complete in 2018.

   Liquid HLW in the canisters was immobilized in glass through the vitrification process. The canisters are being relocated from the site’s Main Plant Process Building to interim storage so pre-demolition activities can take place in the building.

   Commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing ceased in the building in 1972. Workers vitrified the waste resulting from operations from 1996 to 2002 and placed it into 275 10-foot-tall canisters. The canisters were then stored in the building.   

   The team’s mission, to decontaminate and decommission the remnants of the nation’s only commercial fuel reprocessing plant and vitrification facility, is conducted in accordance with the highest safety and radiological control standards to protect all employees and the environment and to ensure occupational radiation exposures are within regulatory limits and standards.

   Before they are authorized to work with radioactive materials — or to enter any radiologically controlled area unescorted — WVDP workers are required to complete radiological worker training and pass an examination.  

   Completion of the formal training course requires satisfactory performance during basic types of simulated work operations. Participants train for situations that may arise in radiologically controlled areas, such as an injury in a contaminated area. Course participants also discuss accident reports to become more familiar with possible problems on the job.

   The WVDP cleanup is conducted by EM in cooperation with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley is EM’s contractor for WVDP.